The last three evenings—Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday—I co-hosted a screening and discussion of The Week, described as a “climate change group experience.” The creators intentionally designed it to follow a U-shaped emotional arc, meaning the first night is the tough love truth about how bad the climate is now and how bad it could get, the second night answers the questions—
Courtney, your work is consistently helpful, urgent, thoughtful & actionable. Thank you for continuing to keep a steady hand on our backs as we try to walk forward in an impossible world.
As for me, the part I feel called to play is coming to light on the heels of a hellish year of treatment for breast cancer. I’m cancer free now, but the whole year all I wanted to read was powerful nature writing. My usual blend of memoir-and-novel on the nightstand got shoved aside for every good book I could devour on the wonder and precarity of the natural world. At first I couldn’t understand this urge—was it escapist to read about trees and birds? Was it doomsday to read about melting glaciers and rising seas? But then I came to see how I was understanding myself anew as a creature in creation: vulnerable to the same forces as the earth itself.
Coming out of cancer, I’m finding that the book I was writing before my diagnosis has changed so tremendously that I have to set it aside for now. A new story is churning within me to be told, and it’s exactly this: how urgent it is for each of us to discover, within our own bodies, what it means to be part of the planet. Thank you for the ways you continue to inform and encourage my own work from afar.
WOW. I am blown away by this comment for so many reasons, Laura. First of all, way to get through the hellish year! I've had a couple of friends going through breast cancer recently so have some insight into what you've been weathering.
But also I just love this reading insight so much and the way it is informing your writing. Keep the Examined Family crew posted on your journey, as this is the kind of writing I think we are all craving.
Have you read The Quickening? I imagine it would really speak to you in this moment.
It's really interesting to hear that you were drawn to nature writing while contending with cancer. I'm currently seriously ill and feel similarly drawn to nature writing above all else when I have the energy to read. I'm still in the midst of my illness and likely will continue to be for quite a bit longer, but I notice that I am also experiencing internal change that makes me feel much more connected to the natural world in ways I wasn't before I got sick.
I know there are a lot of reasons for this, including that my illness forced me to slow down and observe the world at a much slower pace- staring out through windows for long periods. The idea of vulnerability is really useful- thank you. Disease has rendered me vulnerable in ways I never imagined I'd be experiencing in my early twenties and I think I feel a sense of kinship with the natural world and its vulnerability to larger forces.
Thank you for sharing all of this. I feel so much heaviness and personal responsibility when I think about climate change, but I also know that it's the corporations hurting our climate the most right now, and the fact that our government/society does not hold them accountable. The narrative seems to shift a lot of personal blame onto citizens. Yes, I take small actions in my life to try to positively impact my personal sphere of influence (raising a child that holds deep reverence for our earth is a big theme for me right now!) but the actions I take often feel small and insignificant. It's such a helpless, frustrating feeling at times. Holding space for the rage/grief cycle around this.
Totally. I think it's an and/both for all of us. While corporations and billionaires are disproportionately bigger offenders, I also want to tend to the fact that my family consumes so many resources compared to others.
In a world where billionaires can exist it makes my blood boil when our babies feel personally responsible for polar bears drowning. I love the kid activists and their big hearts, but it makes me so mad that they feel more responsible than our leaders. 💔
My kids have started watching Jane (on Apple TV) and even though I feel some apprehension about constantly framing the world as in crisis/endangered for young kids - the series is giving them tangible ideas for how they can help! They love learning about the animals & I love all the Jane Goodall quotes and the guest scientist interviews at the end of each episode. Highly recommend for parents of the 6-14 age range. My main goal is to help my kids fall in love with the earth - like George Eliot says, I want them to know and love it. I think that is the best way to ensure they protect it.
I hadn't heard the data about the effect on fertility or sperm count.
I have for the last decade or so been working through the connection between deforestation and wildlife, tapping into people's love of wildlife to encourage actions to reduce or reverse deforestation.
What the data about sperm count made me think about is which effects of climate change will draw different cohorts of people into serious climate action.
There are almost certainly people who care more about charismatic animals as an idea than they do about people they don't know and will never meet who are already dramatically affected by climate change.
Similarly, there are people who are far more motivated by matters that are privately important to them, like their fertility.
So if the goal is to get people to live differently, one approach is to get people to care in a broader way, and another is to focus on what is closer to home. In the short run it may be most effective to work on all the potential hooks.
Yes exactly. We need so many entry points if we are going to make this movement as big as it needs to be. I love how you infuse the Examined Family space with your love and knowledge of wildlife. Thank you!
The family and I just watched the first episode of a new documentary series on Netflix, Our Living World. Have you seen it?
Thank you for writing about this- it has inspired me to set up a screening and discussion in my community! A couple weekends ago I attended the Climate Reality training in NYC. One thing I heard there that keeps ringing in my ears is that transition is inevitable but a just transition is not. I am primarily motivated by the huge heavy grief I feel for the two humans I chose to make but I am constantly reminding myself about the systems in place that make them safer than others. I want to die knowing I tried to save them in a way that feels moral and helps others. That last sentence feels a little dramatic but I really do feel that right now.
My household has done a lot of the big projects-composting, solar panels, biking to work, only buying meat from a local farm, but there are always ways to keep reducing our carbon footprints.
My advocacy lately hasn’t been focused on the environment but because every issue is intertwined, I see my advocacy for disability justice as an important piece. We should all be taking Covid seriously during this (still) ongoing pandemic, which will lead to fewer people developing Long Covid so we protect the health and brain power of the next generation.
This is meaty…helpful hopeful gently insistent and provocative. At 72, I wonder what is mine to do and appreciate your thoughts, as always. May we each act as we are able to improve the quality of all our lives. 🌎🙏🏻
The resource that has had the most profound impact on me is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. I’ve been contemplating hosting The Week with local friends and am feeling a nudge to see if I can work out the logistics and make it happen.
This next one probably doesn’t go on the list because it’s fiction, but Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has such a bleak story with the most incredible warning/beautiful foil at the end, where it talks about a brook trout. I think that book conveys the gravity of how some things can’t be put back or made right again if they are destroyed. And that’s an important message to not only know logically is true but to feel the gravity of it in our bones so we respect each other and respect the beautiful, strong yet delicate systems of our planet.
“Not guilt exactly, but gravity.” Right there with you. I remember going through the grief too. The sadness that entire species are rapidly disappearing. And the worry over what the rising heat is doing, even where I live in the northeast. It’s been a while since I felt that grief strongly since I know this is ongoing. But the worry is there and the awareness of how it’s already really bad many places.
Courtney, your work is consistently helpful, urgent, thoughtful & actionable. Thank you for continuing to keep a steady hand on our backs as we try to walk forward in an impossible world.
As for me, the part I feel called to play is coming to light on the heels of a hellish year of treatment for breast cancer. I’m cancer free now, but the whole year all I wanted to read was powerful nature writing. My usual blend of memoir-and-novel on the nightstand got shoved aside for every good book I could devour on the wonder and precarity of the natural world. At first I couldn’t understand this urge—was it escapist to read about trees and birds? Was it doomsday to read about melting glaciers and rising seas? But then I came to see how I was understanding myself anew as a creature in creation: vulnerable to the same forces as the earth itself.
Coming out of cancer, I’m finding that the book I was writing before my diagnosis has changed so tremendously that I have to set it aside for now. A new story is churning within me to be told, and it’s exactly this: how urgent it is for each of us to discover, within our own bodies, what it means to be part of the planet. Thank you for the ways you continue to inform and encourage my own work from afar.
This is so powerful. Thank you for sharing and can’t wait to read your book one day!
In the meantime, what were some of your favorite nature reads?
WOW. I am blown away by this comment for so many reasons, Laura. First of all, way to get through the hellish year! I've had a couple of friends going through breast cancer recently so have some insight into what you've been weathering.
But also I just love this reading insight so much and the way it is informing your writing. Keep the Examined Family crew posted on your journey, as this is the kind of writing I think we are all craving.
Have you read The Quickening? I imagine it would really speak to you in this moment.
It's really interesting to hear that you were drawn to nature writing while contending with cancer. I'm currently seriously ill and feel similarly drawn to nature writing above all else when I have the energy to read. I'm still in the midst of my illness and likely will continue to be for quite a bit longer, but I notice that I am also experiencing internal change that makes me feel much more connected to the natural world in ways I wasn't before I got sick.
I know there are a lot of reasons for this, including that my illness forced me to slow down and observe the world at a much slower pace- staring out through windows for long periods. The idea of vulnerability is really useful- thank you. Disease has rendered me vulnerable in ways I never imagined I'd be experiencing in my early twenties and I think I feel a sense of kinship with the natural world and its vulnerability to larger forces.
Thank you for sharing all of this. I feel so much heaviness and personal responsibility when I think about climate change, but I also know that it's the corporations hurting our climate the most right now, and the fact that our government/society does not hold them accountable. The narrative seems to shift a lot of personal blame onto citizens. Yes, I take small actions in my life to try to positively impact my personal sphere of influence (raising a child that holds deep reverence for our earth is a big theme for me right now!) but the actions I take often feel small and insignificant. It's such a helpless, frustrating feeling at times. Holding space for the rage/grief cycle around this.
Totally. I think it's an and/both for all of us. While corporations and billionaires are disproportionately bigger offenders, I also want to tend to the fact that my family consumes so many resources compared to others.
In a world where billionaires can exist it makes my blood boil when our babies feel personally responsible for polar bears drowning. I love the kid activists and their big hearts, but it makes me so mad that they feel more responsible than our leaders. 💔
yes, entirely this.
My kids have started watching Jane (on Apple TV) and even though I feel some apprehension about constantly framing the world as in crisis/endangered for young kids - the series is giving them tangible ideas for how they can help! They love learning about the animals & I love all the Jane Goodall quotes and the guest scientist interviews at the end of each episode. Highly recommend for parents of the 6-14 age range. My main goal is to help my kids fall in love with the earth - like George Eliot says, I want them to know and love it. I think that is the best way to ensure they protect it.
Thanks for the rec. We haven't watched this yet!
I hadn't heard the data about the effect on fertility or sperm count.
I have for the last decade or so been working through the connection between deforestation and wildlife, tapping into people's love of wildlife to encourage actions to reduce or reverse deforestation.
What the data about sperm count made me think about is which effects of climate change will draw different cohorts of people into serious climate action.
There are almost certainly people who care more about charismatic animals as an idea than they do about people they don't know and will never meet who are already dramatically affected by climate change.
Similarly, there are people who are far more motivated by matters that are privately important to them, like their fertility.
So if the goal is to get people to live differently, one approach is to get people to care in a broader way, and another is to focus on what is closer to home. In the short run it may be most effective to work on all the potential hooks.
Yes exactly. We need so many entry points if we are going to make this movement as big as it needs to be. I love how you infuse the Examined Family space with your love and knowledge of wildlife. Thank you!
The family and I just watched the first episode of a new documentary series on Netflix, Our Living World. Have you seen it?
Thank you for the opportunity to share.
I do not have Netflix, but I am glad you have found something there that will speak to your kids at their ages.
Thank you for writing about this- it has inspired me to set up a screening and discussion in my community! A couple weekends ago I attended the Climate Reality training in NYC. One thing I heard there that keeps ringing in my ears is that transition is inevitable but a just transition is not. I am primarily motivated by the huge heavy grief I feel for the two humans I chose to make but I am constantly reminding myself about the systems in place that make them safer than others. I want to die knowing I tried to save them in a way that feels moral and helps others. That last sentence feels a little dramatic but I really do feel that right now.
Amazing, thank you for doing the organizing Rachel. I'd love to hear what you think about the experience.
And thank you for that framing: "transition is inevitable but a just transition is not"
My household has done a lot of the big projects-composting, solar panels, biking to work, only buying meat from a local farm, but there are always ways to keep reducing our carbon footprints.
My advocacy lately hasn’t been focused on the environment but because every issue is intertwined, I see my advocacy for disability justice as an important piece. We should all be taking Covid seriously during this (still) ongoing pandemic, which will lead to fewer people developing Long Covid so we protect the health and brain power of the next generation.
Thank you for pointing out yet another critical intersection here. And for all you're doing for our planet.
This is meaty…helpful hopeful gently insistent and provocative. At 72, I wonder what is mine to do and appreciate your thoughts, as always. May we each act as we are able to improve the quality of all our lives. 🌎🙏🏻
The resource that has had the most profound impact on me is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. I’ve been contemplating hosting The Week with local friends and am feeling a nudge to see if I can work out the logistics and make it happen.
This next one probably doesn’t go on the list because it’s fiction, but Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has such a bleak story with the most incredible warning/beautiful foil at the end, where it talks about a brook trout. I think that book conveys the gravity of how some things can’t be put back or made right again if they are destroyed. And that’s an important message to not only know logically is true but to feel the gravity of it in our bones so we respect each other and respect the beautiful, strong yet delicate systems of our planet.
Another book: Carbon Almanac, a crowdsourced book.
Could we add a documentary section to the crowdsourced document? And add: How to Let Go of the World and Love Everything Climate Can’t Change?
“Not guilt exactly, but gravity.” Right there with you. I remember going through the grief too. The sadness that entire species are rapidly disappearing. And the worry over what the rising heat is doing, even where I live in the northeast. It’s been a while since I felt that grief strongly since I know this is ongoing. But the worry is there and the awareness of how it’s already really bad many places.